Automatic hoist guide lubricator



Oct. 7, 1941. KUNCIS "AUTOMATIC-HOIST GUIDE LUBRICATOR Filed April 25, 1940 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR. BY P: TEE A u/vc/s Oct. 7, 1941. P. KUNCIS 7,

AUTOMATICHQIST GUIDE LUBRICATOR I Filed April 23; 1940 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 m l X Patented Oct. 7, 1941 UNITED STATES P TET OFFICE AUTOMATIC HOIST GUIDE LUBRICATOR Peter Knncis, Lafayette, Colo. Application April 23, 1940, Serial No. 331,088

(Cl. 18 l-21) 5 Claims;

This invention relates to a lubricator for mine cage hoist guides and more particularly to coal mine cage guides.

The hoist of the usual coal mine consists of two hoistways having wooden guides extending vertically throughout their length for guiding the cages in their ascent and descent. These cages operate continuously under extremely heavy and unbalanced loads so that the guides are subjected to extreme frictional contact in an atmosphere filled with coal dust and other abrasive material,

It is, therefore, vitally necessary to maintain these guides in a well lubricated condition to reduce power consumption and to avoid the danger of seizure between the cage channels and the guides and the resulting damage to the cage, shaft, or guides.

The principal object of this invention is to provide a lubricator which will maintain the guides in a constant lubricated condition without attention on the part of an operator; which will lubricate the guides in proportion to their use; and'which will supply no lubrication whatsoever when the hoist is not in use.

Another object is to provide a device of this character which will not require a connection to, or a contact with, the cages or the hoist mechanism in any Way.

Other objects and advantages reside in the detail construction of the invention, which is designed for simplicity, economy, and efiiciency. These will become more apparent from the following description.

In the following detailed description of the invention reference is had to the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof. Like numerals refer to like parts in all views of the drawings and throughout the description.

In the drawings:

Fig. l is a diagrammatic side elevation of a portion of the guides of a typical coal mine hoistway.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged longitudinal section through the improved lubricator.

Fig. 3 is a cross section, taken on the line 3-3, Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is anenlarged detail section through a typical hoisting guide, taken on the line #i4, Fig. 1, illustrating the invention in place therein.

Fig. 5 is a side elevation partially broken away, of a double form of the lubricator for use between two cage guides.

Fig. 6 is an end view of the double form of Fig. 5.

Fig. 7 is a plan view of the double form.

-- member 22 is threaded Fig. 8 is a longitudinal vertical section through the oil distributing head employed in the invention. This section is taken on the line 88, Fig. 9.

Fig. 9 is a cross section through the distributing head, taken on the line 9-'9, Fig. 8.

Fig. 10 is an enlarged detail View of the valve structure for controlling the flow of lubrication. Fig. 11 is an enlarged detail section, taken on the line l-l I, Fig. '7, illustrating the hinge construction.

In Fig. 1 typical shaft cage guides of ahoistway are indicated at H) with their supporting battens at H. The remainder of the hoist supporting structure has been eliminated for the sake of clearness of illustration.

A coal mine hoistway ordinarily employs two cages, one descending as the other is ascending. Two pairs of vertical guides are employed for guiding the cages. being in close proximity as shown in Fig. 1.

The improved lubricator employs oil reservoirs secured at proper points adjacent the guides in and preferably mounted on the supporting battens I I. Two sizes of reservoirs are supplied for the usual hoistway, that is, two small reservoirs l2 for serving the single side guides and a larger reservoir l3 for serving the two adjacent guides at the middle of the hoistway.

The reservoirs are similar except as to length and all are provided with outwardly turned angle feet M by means of which they are secured to the battens I I. The reservoirs are filled through suitable filling nipples closed by means of threaded plugs 15 which are swiveled to-chains it by means of which they are attached to the reservoirs to prevent loss in the shaft. The entrance of foreign materials is prevented by means of a suitable screen 45.

The amount of oil in each reservoir can be noted in a gauge glass I! at the extremity of each reservoir. of each reservoir is controlled by means of a valve I8. The upper portions of the gauge glasses are vented through threaded plugs 44.

The small reserevoirs l2 are each provided with a single valve structure whereas the large reservoir l3 contains two valve structures. All of Each consists of an internally threaded sleeve 20 extending through the bottom of the reservoir and a similar sleeve 2i extending through the top thereof directly over the bottom sleeve 20. A valve cage through the sleeve 29 i from the bottom thereof. The top of the valve The inner guides of each pair- The flow of oil to the gauge glass cage member 22 is bored to slidably receive the lower extremity of a valve tube 23. The lower extremity of the valve tube is tapered to engage a tapered valve seat 24 in the valve cage member 22. Outlet openings 25 are formed in the cage member above the seat 24 to allow oil to enter from the reservoir. It can be readily seen that if the valve tube 23 be lifted, oil will flow from the reservoir through the openings 25 into the cage member and thence downwardly through the hollow interior thereof.

The valve tube extends upwardly through a guide bushing 26, which is threaded downward into the top sleeve 2|, and terminates in a threaded extremity which extends above the reservoir. A valve supporting skirt member 21 is threaded onto the valve tube immediately above the bushing 26. If the skirt member is threaded sufficiently far downward on the tube 23 it will rest on the bushing 26 and support the valve tube away from its seat. Ordinarily, however, the skirt member is out of contact with the bushing and the tube 23 closes the seat 24. The skirt member can be locked in any desired position by means of a lock nut 35.

The lubricator is designed so that the rush of air from the path of an ascending or descending hoist cage will be employed to temporarily lift the valve tube from its seat. This is accomplished through the medium of vane plates 28. The small reservoir has a single vane plate and the larger reservoir with its two valve structures is provided with two vane plates, there being one at each side thereof. The vane plates, their supporting means, and their valve operating mechanisms are similar.

Each vane plate consists of a-flat metallic sheet bent over along its upper edge to enclose a tilting shaft 29. The plate is welded or otherwise secured to the shaft. The extremities of the tilting shaft 29 are turned downwardly as indicated at 30 and terminate in bearing points 3| which rest in depressions in bracket blocks 32 to form frictionless bearings for the vane plates. The bracket blocks are supported from the extremities of the reservoir upon suitable bracket arms 33 so that the vane plates swing freely parallel to the side faces of the reservoirs. An inverted L-shaped retaining bar 31 is secured to each bracket block 32 by means of suitable screws 38 and extends over the top edges of the vane plate to prevent displacement of the bearing points from their sockets.

A forked lever arm 34 extends from each vane plate over the adjacent reservoir with its forked extremity receiving the valve tube 23. A pair of adjustable jam nuts 36 are threaded on the valve tube above the lever arm 34 to be contacted thereby as the vane plate swings toward the reservoir.

When installed, the small reservoirs are placed on the battens ll adjacent the outer guides II] with their vane plates facing the hoistway. The largest reservoir is similarly placed on a batten ll between the two middle guides with its vane plates facing both hoistways. The reservoirs are securely fixed in place by means of lag screws 46 through the angle feet l4.

Each guide H3 is rabbeted to form a rectangular, horizontal groove 39 across its outer face below the positions of the reservoirs. A piece of square tubing forming a distributing head 4-0 is forced into the groove 39 to frictionally engage the walls thereof. The distributing heads 40 are secured on the extremities of oil tubes 4| which extend rearwardly through holes in the guides,

thence upwardly through the battens H terminating in couplings 42 threaded into the bottoms of the valve cages 22.

Immediately below the points where the oil tubes enter the distributing heads a separating partition 43 is placed to divide the incoming oil equally toward the two open extremities of the head. It will be noted that since the heads do not extend the full width of the guides, the oil will flow from the open extremities onto the floor of the groove 39 and from thence to the guide surfaces adjacent the corners thereof. The

runners on the hoist cages consist of angle irons placed to ride along the guide corner surfaces, as indicated in broken line at A, Fig. 4, so that the oil reaches the very surfaces with which the runners contact. The partition 43 prevents all of the oil from running from one extremity of the head in cases where the head should not be positioned prefectly horizontal.

The hoist cages operate alternately, that is, one ascends as the other descends and their movement is relatively rapid so that a volume of air is compressed ahead of them and a partial vacuum follows them. Thus as the cages approach the lubricators the compressed mass of air forces the two opposite vane plates outwardly at both sides of the hoistway to open the valves and allow oil to flow to the guides. This oil is spread along the entire length of the guides by the succeeding trips of the cages so that the guides are maintained lubricated as long as the hoist is operating. The top of the valve tube is closed by means of a plug 44 having an air vent communicating with the hollow interior of the tube. This allows air to flow downwardly through the tube 23 and the oil tube 4i to completely empty the latter and prevent air locks therein.

In actual operation the vane plates 28 will swing for several oscillations after each passage of the cages so that a series of spurts of oil are admitted to the oil tubes at each passage. The amount of oil admitted each time can be regulated by varying the position of the jam nuts 36 which regulate the amount of lift of the valve tubes 23.

On dry guides on new installations or in mines which have been closed down for considerable periods more oil will be initially required. This can be obtained by threading the skirt member 21 downward until it contacts the bushing 26 to hold the valve tube away from its seat at all times until the guides are sufficiently lubricated.

A single set of lubricators has been found by actual practise to be sufiicient to lubricate guides 400 feet in length without a single failure and with a great economy of oil. For mines in excess of this depth, an additional set of lubricators could be positioned at a lower lever in the shaft.

It will be noted that when the cages are not in operation, no oil will be supplied to the guides and that the supply of oil is directly proportional to the amount of use of the hoist without waste.

While the invention has been more particularly designed for mine hoist installations, it will be found equally valuable in any guided hoisting installation of a similar nature such as passenger or freight elevators and the like.

While a specific form of the improvement has been described and illustrated herein, it is desired to be understood that the same may be varied, within the scope of the appended claims, Zithout departing from the spirit of the inven- Having thus described the invention, what is claimed and desired secured by Letters Patent is:

l. A hoist cage guide lubricator comprising: lubricant distributing means on said guides; a gravity reservoir above said distributin means; a conduit supplying said lubricant from said reservoir to said means; a valve for controlling the flow through said conduit; a wind vane operable from the air disturbance caused by the passage of a cage along said guides; and means for opening said valve in consequence of the movement of said wind vane.

2. A hoisting cage guide lubricator comprising: an oil reservoir; a valve below the oil surface level in said reservoir; a conduit leading from said valve to said guide for supplying oil to the latter; a freely swinging plate on the exterior of said reservoir; and a valve operating member for transmitting the movements of said plate to said valve for controlling the latter.

3. A hoisting cage guide lubricator comprising: an oil reservoir; a valve below the oil surface level in said reservoir; a conduit leading from said valve to said guide for supplying oil to the latter; a freely swinging plate on the exterior of said reservoir; a lever arm extending from said plate to a point above said valve; and a valve operating member extending between said lever arm and said valve for controlling the latter.

4. A hoisting cage guide lubricator comprising: an oil reservoir; a valve below the oil surface level in said reservoir; a conduit leading from said valve to said guide for supplying oil to the latter; bracket members extending to one side of said reservoir; a substantially vertical vane plate swingingly suspended from said brackets alongside said reservoir; a lever fixed to said plate and extending over said reservoir; a valve stem member extending from said. valve upward through the top of the reservoir; and means for communicating the movements of said lever to said valve stem member to operate said valve.

5. A hoisting cage guide lubricator comprising: an oil reservoir; a valve below the oil surface level in said reservoir; a conduit leading from said valve to said guide for supplying oil to the latter; bracket members extending to one side of said reservoir; a substantially vertical vane plate swingingly suspended from said brackets alongside said reservoir; a lever fixed to said plate and extending over said reservoir; a valve stem member extending from said valve upward through the top of the reservoir and through said lever; and contacting means on said stem member to be contacted by said lever as said vane plate swings inwardly toward said reservoir.

PETER KUNCIS. 

